Het is volop zomer en ik schrijf deze column onder een schaduwrijke boom in een tuin vol vrolijk fluitende vogels.

Nu dwarsligger Orbán weg is, en critici zich niet meer kunnen verschuilen achter de Hongaarse premier, wordt duidelijk hoe de Europese landen écht kijken naar EU-toetreding van Oekraïne. Kritischer, zo blijkt. Nederland gaat daarin voorop.

Na de vermissing van shorttracker Roes vraagt Marijn de Vries zich af: Hoe leer je atleten dat ze er ook mogen zijn als mens?

De Amerikaanse singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams heeft een sterrenstatus. Op haar derde album ‘Daughter from Hell’ maakt ze soms indruk, maar te vaak blijft ze hangen in de stijl van haar grote voorbeeld Taylor Swift.

De voormalige burgemeester van Manchester volgt maandag Keir Starmer op als nieuwe premier van het Verenigd Koninkrijk.

Gen Z kreeg onder uit de zak, begin juni in de opiniesectie van nrc.nl. De huidige jongvolwassenen, betoogde de auteur, zijn socialisten.

Altijd als Saskia Giorgini (41) in Nederland optreedt, haasten de marketeers zich te zeggen dat ze Italiaans-Néderlands is. Dat klopt ook wel, maar behalve een Nederlandse moeder en een Nederlands paspoort, is ze toch wel voor een erg groot deel Italiaans. Donderdag speelt ze in het Concertgebouw.

Terwijl het eerste officiële WK-nummer flopte, gingen fans zelf aan de slag met AI-nummers. Toch wist Shakira wederom ‘de koningin van het WK’ te worden. Een muzikale terugblik op het WK voor de ‘halftime-show’ deze zondag.

Earlier this week, Linux project leader Linus Torvalds told AI haters to fork off, and invited anyone who didn't like his comments to fork the kernel. Well, here you go: linux-0.11-rs, a total reimplementation of the Linux kernel, done in langage de programmation du jour, Rust. No, this isn't really a response to the Emperor Penguin's challenge – for a start, it looks like it was done with AI – but the timing was irresistible. The new project is by an undergrad student at Beihang University in Beijing, China, under the handle Poseidon. Never mind not being a fork – Poseidon's kernel isn't even really a port of Linux. It's a rewrite, and a rewrite of a very early version. It's based on Linux kernel 0.11, whose source code you can peruse on this mirror. This was an early kernel from December 8, 1991 – just a few months after the initial release, Linux 0.01. Version 0.11 was the last release of that first year of Linux. It was followed by version 0.12 in January 1992, then the version number jumped to 0.95 in March, as the young Torvalds started counting down to kernel 1.0 – which arrived two years later. If you read the 0.11 release notice, Torvalds said: "Linux-0.11 has a few rather major improvements, but perhaps most notably, is the first kernel where some other people start making real contributions." He goes on to say: "This is a major milestone, since it makes the kernel much more powerful than Minix was at the time." It's also when "Ted Ts'o shows up as a coder." Poseidon's Rust rewrite is quite a lot bigger than the original. The hackers of the "Orange Site" have been dissecting it with much greater expertise than this vulture can offer. User "dminik" fed it to an automatic code analyzer, and Pajecawav's Ghloc reckoned that it's just over 47,000 lines of Rust. Dminik breaks that down: "It's about 15k lines of code for the kernel and the rest is various utilities, libraries and programs that can run on the kernel." In other words, linux-0.11-rs is more complete than just the kernel. It also includes the core OS as it stood at the end of the year it first appeared. "Poseidon" also credits a tutorial on writing an OS kernel in Rust, which implies to us that this was not an entirely bot-driven effort. Some work has gone into it. Some of the Hacker News commentators call it a waste of tokens, or more pointedly a waste of water and electricity, but it seems to be a kid having some fun, playing around and experimenting. For us, that's a good thing. We hope that they found the exercise instructive. The Reg FOSS desk is not a fan of bot-slop, but we do approve of exploring and learning and having fun. At least for as long as code-generating LLMs are cheap and plentiful, it will be very hard to prevent youngsters and students from playing around and experimenting with them. Nobody is ever going to deploy anything on a bot-generated rewrite of a prototype kernel from 35 years ago – and don't forget that the original was itself written by a 22-year-old who was doing it "Just for Fun." ®

Microsoft has delayed the removal of the -Credential parameter from Exchange Online PowerShell until December 2026, giving administrators more time to update affected scripts and automation. The -Credential parameter is used when connecting to Exchange Online PowerShell. It allows an administrator to supply stored username and password credentials. These days, it is heavily discouraged, particularly when more secure authentication methods are available. Microsoft had designated the parameter for removal in July 2026 as part of its move away from password-based authentication. The trouble is tracking down automation scripts that use it, updating them, and validating the changes – assuming a fix is even possible. Once the parameter is gone from the Connect-ExchangeOnline and Connect-IppsSession cmdlets in the Exchange Online PowerShell module, any scripts still relying on it will break, potentially taking carefully built workflows down with them. However, Microsoft has opted to push back the retirement beginning December 2026 – a festive gift for administrators. The company stated: "If your organization uses the -Credential parameter in PowerShell scripts or automation workflows connecting to Exchange Online or Security & Compliance PowerShell, those scripts will break when you update to an Exchange Online PowerShell module version released beginning December 2026." As such, the retirement won't take effect until an update is performed. The server-side retirement of the underlying authentication flow is planned "for a later date." "When that occurs, the -Credential parameter will stop functioning even on older module versions." Microsoft said it delayed the retirement due to "customer feedback," although it came late in the day. That said, a few extra months will be welcomed by affected administrators dealing with the impact of the change. And the change is still coming. Microsoft added: "While our published timeline extends to the start of December 2026, we strongly recommend that all customers transition away from the -Credential parameter as soon as possible and not wait until the deadline." ®

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that Google may not be able to claim intermediary liability protection for YouTube content it reviews as part of a commercial partnership with a creator. The case stems from a €750,000 fine imposed on Google Ireland by Italy's communications regulator in 2022 over YouTube videos promoting online gambling. Before entering the revenue-sharing agreement, under which Google placed pre-roll ads on the creator's videos, the company reviewed the channel's content. The regulator argued that this examination undermined Google's claim that it acted as a neutral intermediary exempt from liability. Google appealed against the fine, and the case was referred to the CJEU. The court rejected Mountain View's reading of the liability exemption, leaving Italy's Council of State to decide the dispute. The exemption still applies where "the service provider has neither knowledge of nor control over the information which is transmitted or stored." However, in this instance, Google was aware of the content. The court held that the exemption "does not apply" to a platform operator that agreed commercial terms with a channel where the operator "carried out an examination of the content of that channel," including its main theme, its most-viewed or newest videos, or the associated metadata. In effect, the ruling limits Google's ability to rely on its "intermediary service provider" defense when it has reviewed a channel as part of a commercial partnership. In those circumstances, the platform may be unable to claim the liability exemption for the content at issue. This doesn't mean Google is liable for everything on YouTube, but the megacorp needs to be more careful with channels where it has commercial deals that come with a level of content review and specific knowledge that can forfeit intermediary status. A Google spokesperson said: "We are disappointed by the CJEU's decision, which we will need further clarity on. We ⁠will raise our arguments before the Council of State." ®

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Nu ook echt voor iedereen & de rest van Nederland: zomervakantie. De sleurhut (Beyerland Vitesse 400-2) uit de stalling, Adilette-slippers aan de tenen, bier in de koeling, file op de Route du Soleil, klapband, ANWB, hitte, blauwalg, Kronenbourg, u kent het allemaal wel. Er is nieuwe muziek van Yard Act, Waylon Wyatt, The Menzingers, wat bonusmateriaal van Metallica en een gedicht van Novica Tadic. Vakantie makkers. Bijna. Prettig weekend.

Waylon Wyatt

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Novica Tadic - Night Passes

Poor us, we are all kings
when we gaze at the starry sky.

The noise of the crowd grows faint
on the town square and in our blood.

The voice will re-enter the angel’s trumpet.
Once again hell will rise on its feet.

The Menzingers

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Quicksand

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Motionless in White

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Bonus

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Moderne problemen vragen om moderne oplossingen. Het adres aan de Bos en Lommerweg in Amsterdam west werd afgelopen tijd getroffen door o.a. een beschieting en explosie. De politie vermoedt dat ene 'Achie de Somaliër' het beoogde doelwit was. maar wat blijkt? DIE WOONT HIER NIET. Dus ducttapet Politie Amsterdam het maar gewoon op de voordeur:

"Achie de Somaliër wont NIET op dirt adres. Er is sprake van een vergissing met betrekking tot het adres. De bewoners hebben geen enkelere elatie met of betrokkenheid bij Achie."

AT5 schrijft: "Er vielen nog geen gewonden bij de aanslagen, hoewel een bewoner bij de beschieting thuis was. Wie Achie de Somaliër is, anders dan het beoogde doelwit, kon de woordvoerder nog niet zeggen." Wij weten ook niet wie Achie is, maar we durven wel aan dat hij uit Somalië komt.

Microsoft restored streamer Joshua Khane's 25-year-old Xbox and OneDrive account after it was compromised by a hacker and then suspended, putting years of personal data, baby photos, and thousands of dollars in games at risk. IGN reports: While he was "extremely happy" and thanked Microsoft for its help recovering his account and all the invaluable information therein, he levied some criticisms toward the brand for its initial response, claiming it had told him the suspension was "irreversible" at first. "It's unfortunate that such a big company can bring back your account if you ask them to," he said. "The way it all went, to me, is a little bit shady, because it's not that they can't bring back your account -- they won't bring back your account if you're a nobody."

Khane credited the community for making his story go viral and bringing it to Microsoft's attention, but felt that without their help, he would have been up a creek without a paddle. He also tied the situation to the growing conversation surrounding digital ownership, comparing it to Sony's decision to stop printing physical game discs starting January 2028.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

date stamped on slide July 1977

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

From portraits taken around Harlem in the 1940s to assignments for Life magazine to the 1963 March on Washington, Gordon Parks (1912-2006) wielded his camera as a tool for social justice. He captured civil rights activists like Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. in addition to artists and celebrities such as Helen Frankenthaler and Ingrid Bergman. But he may be best known for his candid portraits of families and communities in the segregated South during the era of Jim Crow. All of these and more will be on view in Voices in the Mirror at Jack Shainman Gallery in mid-September, also marking the 20th anniversary of The Gordon Parks Foundation.

Parks was spurred to pursue photography in 1937 after seeing photos taken for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which held a mission to document American life. “I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs,” he said. “I knew at that point I had to have a camera.” In 1942, he became the first Black photographer hired as part of the initiative, introducing him to Washington, D.C., where he noted that “discrimination and bigotry were worse there than any place I had yet seen.”

Among the images included in Voices in the Mirror are seminal portraits like “American Gothic, Washington, D.C.” (1942), which captures a government worker named Ella Watson with a broom and mop. The work nods to American Regionalist painter Grant Wood’s likewise iconic “American Gothic” painting, created 12 years earlier as an ode to American values. Parks’ image represented a starkly contrasted reality.

After speaking with Watson about her life and experience in D.C., Parks recalled that it was “so disastrous that I felt that I must photograph this woman in a way that would make me feel—or make the public feel—about what Washington, D.C., was in 1942.” He positioned her in front of a flag with a symbolic mop and broom. “I didn’t care about what anybody else felt,” he said. “That’s what I felt about America and Ella Watson’s position inside America.”

The exhibition is accompanied by numerous anecdotes and reflections by some of those who appeared in the photos or had close relationships with those who did, such as Malcolm X’s daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, and Cora Taylor, who was one of the women standing near a pair of segregated water fountains in “Segregation in the South” (1956).

Voices in the Mirror opens on September 18 and continues through November 7 in New York. You might also be interested in the works of other FSA photographers who documented the South during the 1930s and 1940s, such as Russell Lee and Marion Post Wolcott.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Voices in the Mirror’ Honors the Legacy of Pioneering Photographer Gordon Parks appeared first on Colossal.